Various kinds of spare key holders are common in the art. Some relatively expensive wallets are made with slots in the leather for containing spare keys, but the keys mark or distort the leather and usually are not reliably secured. An improvement of this design has been achieved by the use of plastic inserts, but even then, a portion of the key is exposed to the leather.
Other spare key holders consist of a metal or plastic box equipped with a magnet for attachment to a metal surface. These holders are normally carried in the engine compartment of a motor vehicle. These holders are bulky and their use is so widespread that they have become a security problem due to the limited number of hiding places on vehicles. At least one police department has advised against their use.
Another concealment-type holder consists of simply a piece of adhesive tape used to secure a key to a concealed surface. However, this type of concealment is not portable and is subject to discovery. Another disadvantage of this and other concealment-type holders is that if used with vehicles, the key must usually be placed in a dirty and not readily accessible place.
The present invention, being essentially in credit card form, does not appreciably distort the leather of wallets (and can be carried separately from a wallet) is not bulky and is portable.
Spare key holders in card or rectangular form are known in the prior art, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,734,624. However, prior art card key holders contain slots in which keys are inserted. This allows edges or ends of the keys to extend from the surface of the card. Such extensions are cumbersome and can result in the keys catching or binding on other materials contained in wallets or purses where the holder normally is carried. In the present invention, no such extensions are present.
Another defect in prior card key holders is that they hold only keys. The present invention is adapted to contain not only keys but also coins, either separately or simultaneously. Additionally, the present holder can contain safety pins, needle and thread, pins and various other handy items for emergencies. Thus the present holder is significantly more functional than previous holders.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,910,410 discloses a container which operates somewhat similar to the present invention but which is used for an entirely different purpose and is resultantly unnecessarily complex in comparison to the present invention. An important aspect of the present invention is its simplicity and every-day functionality in its intended purposes. Another important aspect is that the invention, in a preferred form, provides for positive retention, without slippage, of the contained items due to contact between the items and the adhesive surface of the lid. U.S. Pat. No. 3,910,410 does not disclose this advantage.